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The Road Less Traveled: Part 1

February 26, 2019 - 6 minute read


empty highway image by Emma Dau

Time Well Spent

Think of your day as a school personnel administrator. Break it down. As a Human Resources leader, where are you spending the majority of your minutes, hours and days? Hopping from one meeting to the next; responding to a plethora of email requests; constantly navigating difficult conversations; investigating this; negotiating that… all the while, making literally a thousand decisions before 5:00pm.

The demands of the job make any proactive work very difficult to accomplish. Because of the nature of our jobs as Human Resources leaders, we are seldom able to focus on the 90% (those employees who are doing really great work). We have so many teachers and classified employees who go above and beyond the call of duty to make a positive impact in the lives of our students on a daily basis. Most of them will receive very little positive reinforcement or recognition. The question we have posed to ourselves as the HR leaders in our district is simple… what can we do to let our employees know how much we appreciate and value them in a way that does not require an inordinate amount of time, yet makes a powerful impact? We did, in fact, choose to go into HR because, as principals, we recognized early on that our employees (teachers, classified employees, and fellow administrators)… the people, were the most important ingredient to the success of our students, and school as a whole.

Random Intentional Acts of Kindness

As leaders of the Human Resources department for the fifth largest school district in the state of California, we are constantly trying to figure out new and innovative ways to support the more than 4,500 employees and 50,000 students of our district. So we began researching.

In his book, the Five Love Languages (2015), Gary Chapman describes Words of Affirmation as one of the deepest human needs… the need to feel appreciated. Dr. John Maxwell, in his book, Winning with People (2017), shares the following: “Whether we succeed or fail is largely a matter of how well we motivate the human beings with whom we deal… success or failure is essentially a matter of human relationships.” Sam Walton, founder of Walmart states, “Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They’re absolutely free and worth a fortune.” And that’s what we decided to do… praise the efforts of our employees!

Beginning in August of 2018, the Associate and Assistant Superintendents made the commitment to make personal phone calls on behalf of the principals from around our entire district (63 sites in total). On a monthly basis, our site principals provide us with the name of one certificated and one classified employee who is doing an exceptional job that they would like us to recognize. Our principals provide us with a brief explanation as to why they selected these employees to be contacted by us. Then we call them and we thank them. Each person is informed that he or she was chosen for the reason provided by the principal. The following describes the very simple process that we are using in an effort to make a positive impact in the overall culture of our district.

3 Simple Steps to Success

1) (P)ositive

We make brief, positive phone calls from the Associate or Assistant Superintendent of the Human Resources department at the District Office and let employees know, and this is the most important part, that their principal notified us of the great work they have been doing at their site. We specifically describe two to four things they are doing exceptionally well that caught the attention of their site administrators. And then we thank them.

2) (C)all

We personally make phone calls to one certificated and one classified employee per school site, per month. For a district the size of ours, the thought of actually doing this seemed daunting at first. But then, we did the math. For a district of 57 schools, the amount of time we spend making these calls breaks down as follows:

57 total schools X 2 employees to call per school = 114 phone calls to make per month
114 calls X 2 minutes per call = 228 minutes on the phone per month
228 minutes ÷ 60 minutes = 3.8 hours per month
3.8 hours per month ÷ 2 Asst Supts making calls = 1.9 hours spent per month making calls
                            2.1 hours per month in the time spent to make Positive Calls Home

Now consider the following:

As HR leaders, we work approximatly...

22 days per month X 9 hours per day (approximately) a very conservative number for most people reading this article = 198 hours worked per month
198 hours per month ÷ 1.9 hours spent making calls per month = Less than 1%
       Less than 1% of our work time is spent making calls to let employees know we value them

Initially, we contemplated going the email route. But we really wanted this to be personal. We wanted the person who was being recognized to hear our voices and understand how much we really appreciate them. We have found that a phone call is a much better way to convey our appreciation in a heartfelt manner than an email.

3) (H)ome

We place these calls to our employees’ home or cell phone number. The rationale behind that decision is twofold: (1) a call placed to a personal number as opposed to a work phone number indicates a greater level of personal connection; (2) if we leave a message, the employees have the opportunity to save the message, which many of our employees have notified us they have been doing.

Feedback We Have Received

The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Once people realize HR is not calling for a “bad reason,” they are humbled by the personal touch of the simple thank you and the fact their direct supervisor recommended them. What an honor! My supervisor was asked for the name of anyone and he/she chose to tell HR about me? They tell their friends. Their friends gain a different perspective about “the District.” They get off the phone knowing their employer truly appreciates them, and notices their work. And maybe, just maybe, the District is recognized as consisting of people who personally care about their employees.

We live near one of the most famous stretches of highway… Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). Just as one can take a road trip along California’s PCH to see some of America’s most dramatic coastal views, our PCH initialism reminds us of the dramatic impact a few positive words can have on the life of our employees!

Are you struggling with your own inspiration and energy? Telling someone you appreciate them and value them is energizing. It fosters a feeling of gratitude and optimism in the person receiving (and the person providing) the positive feedback. You will spend most of your time helping others with their problems. Why not take a few minutes to energize yourself, and make a powerful impact in the lives of your employees. If you value your employees, tell them. It really is that simple. You may not get to everyone, but you will be making a difference. And for those you call, and those they know, you have impacted lives in a way you may never be able to quantify. It’s not a program. It’s not systematic or predictable. It’s simple. Who will you call first?

Tim Brooks, Rich Montgomery, and Robert Miller work in Human Resource Services for one of the largest districts in California. As speakers with a variety of universities, workshops, and symposiums, they deliver an authentic, practical message resonating with teachers, administrators and community members.

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